Old Wives Tales
by Alyssa86InMN
Summary: The time traveler said they'd have three kids and Castle is determined to have that prediction be true. One-shot.


**A/N: Hey everyone, here's a little one shot that I've been working on. I seem to be motivated more to write now that I have a couch in my apartment rather than a couple of armchairs. (Weird, I know) Hopefully, I'll have another one-shot written soon. This one has been on my mind lately though, so it got written faster than the other one I'm working on.**

The TV is on, but muted, when Rick Castle arrives home from a last-minute evening meeting at Black Pawn. The animated characters of his youngest daughter's favorite show provide the only light in the apartment except for a dim glow coming from his and Kate's office. Rick takes off his coat and hangs it in the front closet, then snaps on a table lamp on his way to where he believes his wife is.

Glancing between the books of the see-through bookshelves that make up the walls of the office, Rick finds it unoccupied and assumes his wife went to bed early. A displeasing hum escapes his mouth.

"Hey, you're home," a sleep-heavy voice says behind him.

Rick turns on his heel to find his wife sprawled on the couch with a tiny mop of dark hair belonging to their daughter splayed across her chest. The little girl is cocooned under a knitted afghan with her mother's arms resting atop her back.

"It looks like you both marathoned Puppy Dog Pals pretty hard. Lily looks down for the count."

"She had her bath earlier and I'm pretty sure her sleepy time shampoo gave me a contact high."

"Or a contact low."

Kate chuckles and the movement of her chest jostles Lily, but not enough to wake her.

"Did you want me to take her up to her room?"

"Would you? I was hoping we could talk about something too."

"Well, that sounds ominous," Rick says as he bends down to make the transfer of the sleeping girl from parent to parent smoother.

The pair both stand and Kate leans in to give Rick a quick peck to the corner of his mouth. "It's not. I promise." She smiles then lays a kiss to the crown of her daughter's head. "Meet you in our room?"

"Of course."

* * *

When Rick enters the bedroom a few minutes later, Kate is changing into a white tank top and pale blue flannel pajama pants. When she is done, she sits in the middle of the bed with her legs crossed beneath her while Rick follows suit and starts unbuttoning the dark blue dress shirt that she loves on him.

"What did you want to talk about?" Rick asks while working on undoing the buttons on his cuffs.

Kate watches her husband undress with a small smile gracing her lips.

"I've been thinking a lot about this lately," Kate pauses.

Rick senses the gravity of the conversation blanket the room and stops fiddling with his watch to give Kate his full attention. He rests against the vanity hutch behind him and waits for her to continue.

"I've been thinking that I want to try for another baby." Kate bites her lip with hesitance, even though she knows her husband has wanted another baby since Lily was born.

"Really?" Rick grins and approaches the bed as if moving too quickly would startle Kate's proposal from existence.

"Yeah, Rick. I want us to have another baby." Kate is grinning too when Rick reaches her on the bed. "I do have to add that I want this one to be the last."

"Oh." His excitement dampens. "But remember that time traveler said we will have three kids…"

Kate glares at him. "Castle, time travel is not real and even if that guy was right, who is to say that the third child in that count wasn't Alexis?"

Rick stares just past Kate, deep in thought and not listening to his wife's reasoning. "Or maybe…" Rick stops for dramatic effect and looks her straight in the eye, "it means we will have twins!"

Kate buries her head in her hands. She knows she should have expected such a response from Rick, but in her haze of baby fever, she forgot about the "time traveler" and his prediction of three children.

"Castle, twins don't run in either of our families. It is unlikely that that will happen."

"But we can make it happen! I'm sure there are ways you can increase your chances of having twins."

"Do you hear yourself right now? We are only going to have one more baby. Just one."

"But if you happen to get pregnant with twins…"

"In the very unlikely event that you knock me up with twins, then I will amend my statement, but Castle, that is not going to happen."

Rick jumps from the bed. "I have to do some research!"

"Research for what?" Kate calls to her retreating husband.

"On how to have twins, of course!"

Kate flops back into the bed and mutters, not loud enough for Rick to hear, "I was hoping we'd be doing something else, but by all means, do your research."

* * *

The next morning, Kate wakes to the sound of the blender coming from the kitchen. She gets out of bed and shuffles toward the noise.

"What are you doing, Castle?" Kate asks, fighting back a yawn.

"I'm making you a special breakfast."

Kate sits on a stool at the counter, resting her head in one of her hands. "What are you making? It looks like a smoothie."

"It is. Here try it." Castle slides a glass to her.  
The substance inside is the color of pond scum and after a quick whiff, Kate believes that is exactly what her husband hands her.

At Kate's hesitance to ingest the drink, Rick says, "come on, it'll be good for you!"

Kate scrunches her face and brings the glass to her mouth and takes a tiny sip. Her face contorts and puckers before she finally spits it back into the glass. "Give me a napkin!" She thrusts her hand out. Kate's tone has Rick scrambling for one.

Once the napkin is in her hand she starts scraping her tongue with it, trying to get the putrid taste out of her mouth.

"What the hell was in that?!"

"Umm, it was just a bunch of stuff that is good for you…"

"Like what?"

"Well, blueberries, raspberries, apple, carrots, wheat germ, alfalfa, ginseng, anise, yucca root, and bourbon…" Rick's voice gets progressively quieter as the list grows.

"Yucca root and bourbon? Why would you put that in a breakfast smoothie?"

"I did some research and all of those foods can increase your chances of super-ovulation."

Kate throws the napkin on the counter and stomps off to the bedroom shouting, "I cannot believe you." She turns when she reaches the office door. "I am almost scared to ask what you plan on making for dinner, so I'm picking up pizza for me and Lily on my way home."

* * *

Kate leaves the loft angry, but work keeps her busy the whole day so she doesn't have time to dwell on the antics of her ridiculous husband. As she announced to Rick before she left, she does stop for a pizza on the way home. She feels generous too and has only half the pizza include the pineapple both she and Lily love but Rick hates.

The loft buzzes with the tinny music of a couple of Lily's favorite electronic toys and Kate hears her daughter's giggle and husband's chuckle reverberate through the upstairs hallway and down the stairs to where she stands with dinner.

"Castle!" Kate calls up the stairs.

Kate hears a clunk from a dropped toy followed by the pattering of little feet and is greeted by Lily's smiling face as she toddles down the stairs.

"Mommy!"

Kate grins at the sight of her three-year-old, her dark brown hair done up in pigtails with little pink ribbons. "Hi, Baby!"

Kate sets the pizza on a nearby end table so she can catch Lily as she jumps the last few steps from the landing into her arms. It was something the gutsy and spirited Castle girl started doing just before she turned three and continues to do when Kate arrives home.

Kate smushes a series of kisses across Lily's cheeks and asks, "Were you having fun with Daddy?"

"Ya, we play wit Rolly and Bingo."

"You did, huh? Do you think Rolly and Bingo are hungry for pizza?"

"No, I hungry for pizza, Mommy!"

"You are? Why don't you go get Daddy and I can get you some pizza. How does that sound?"

Lily nods her head but her whole body moves with the motion. Kate sets her down so she can run up the stairs to retrieve Rick, then she takes the pizza into the kitchen.

Kate opens the refrigerator to get Lily a sippy cup of milk to eat with her dinner but spots a bag of oysters sitting on the third shelf. She grimaces and suspects the slimy creatures have something to do with Rick's "Twin Mission."

Rick walks into the kitchen carrying Lily who he places in a chair at the table. He comes around the island and gives Kate a quick side hug and a kiss on the cheek while she places slices of pizza on plates. "Hey, sweetie. How was work?"

"Busy. How was your day?"

"You know, the usual." Rick shrugs. He grabs the smallest plate and brings a slice of pizza to Lily.

"Does the usual include a bag of oysters?"

"Oh, you saw that," Rick hesitates. At Kate's disapproving glare, he returns to her side and explains. "About that, those are for me. Oysters are apparently good for, um…" Rick eyes their daughter and lowers his voice, "...sperm production."

"Oh my God, Castle. You need to let this go."

"But Kate…"

"Castle, I am serious. I don't care what you do with those oysters, but from now on, I don't want to hear or be involved in any more old wives tales about twins. Can't you just be happy with one more baby?"

Rick sighs, his disappointment obvious. "I will be happy with one more baby, but I'm not going to lie and say I wasn't looking forward to two more babies."

"I know, Babe, but I just don't want to go through three pregnancies. It was hard enough with Lily. I'm in my forties now. It will only get harder the older I get."

"I'm sorry for being overzealous. Do you think you can forgive me enough to start trying to expand our family tonight?" Rick waggles his eyebrows and smirks down at Kate.

Kate snorts and shakes her head. "You are ridiculous, but I love you anyway." She wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him in for a kiss that is tame enough around a three-year-old but suggests at what is to come in a few hours.

* * *

Four months later, Kate sits on the lid of the toilet waiting for the timer on her phone to alert her to turn over the test in her hands. She prepares for the test to be negative because she knows the likelihood of getting pregnant again so soon after going off birth control isn't in her favor, but she's late and it has her feeling hopeful.

Her phone beeps and her heart quickens. She wants to prepare for the worst but the hopefulness is overpowering the pessimism that comes so easily for her. She takes a deep breath and flips over the test. Pregnant.

* * *

T wo weeks later, Kate and Rick wait in an exam room at the obstetrician's office. Kate wanted to surprise Rick with the news of their pregnancy in a fun and creative way, but she was too excited and ended up blurting it out when they were lying in bed together later that night.

Dr. Lydia Archer knocks and enters and the room, ready to do a quick exam and an ultrasound to ensure the fetus is forming properly.  
"Everything is looking great, Kate," Dr. Archer says. "Now how about we get a look at that baby?"

Kate grins and takes a quick peek at Rick who is beaming beside her.

The doctor squeezes some gel on Kate's belly and moves the transducer probe around her still-flat abdomen.

"Things are looking good here too. I see...oh, wait a second," Dr. Archer pauses.

"What?" Kate asks, feeling her stomach sink in a panic.

"It looks like you two will be having twins." Dr. Archer looks to her patient, who has a look of shock on her face.

"I'm sorry. What?" Kate asks.

Rick tries to hold back his giddiness, but he ends up looking like a five-year-old in a need of a bathroom. He's fidgeting and biting back a grin. "Oh my God, Kate. It worked!"

Kate looks to her husband in horror then back to the doctor. "How did this happen? Twins don't run in our families."

"It looks like your two are identical twins because they share the same placenta. There is no genetic link between identical twins. It just tends to happen no matter if you have a family history of twins or not."

Kate still looks horrified. "I don't know what to say."

"I told you we were meant to have three!" Rick exclaims.

Dr. Archer maintains a neutral facial expression as she wipes off the gel. "I assume you want pictures?"

Kate nods and wipes away some tears that have started to fall. "I just can't believe this." Kate points a thumb at Rick. "I've been insisting to him that we were only going to have one more baby, but the universe seems to have a sense of humor." Kate chuckles. "I don't know what to think."

Dr. Archer hands over a few copies of the ultrasound. "I can give you some information about what you will need to do differently with a twin pregnancy and then Rachel at the front desk can get you scheduled for your next appointment." She stands and holds out a hand to Rick and then Kate and congratulates them and leaves the room.

"So how do you feel about this?" Rick asks.

Kate huffs out a breath. "I'm in shock and I'm scared, but I'm also really happy."

Rick smiles and leans over to kiss Kate on the forehead. "Me too."

"I love you, Rick."

"I love you too."

Kate places a hand on Rick's cheek and draws him into a kiss. She's going to be the mother of three kids and she can't imagine anyone else she'd rather have as her partner in crime and in life.

**A/N: The Puppy Dog Pals references are dedicated to my very adorable almost-three-year-old niece Noelle who is obsessed with the show.**

**Tumblr: MonaLyssa33**  
**Twitter: AlyssaWriting**


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